Saturday, June 25, 2016

OMG, I so LOVE this movie! (and other reviews)

Inception: just outta the blue, after a conversation that covered a lot of topics, Stephen directed my attention to the wall of movies/the DVR and Netflix queues (in the hopes I would pick our movie). The title on the wall caught my eye, and since neither of us had watched it in a long while, we decided that this would be our viewing choice of the night. I suggested early on that if we had time, we also watch Looper, for the "time-traveling" JGL. But there wasn't time tonight to watch Looper, so instead, we started watching some of the BTS stuff on the Blu-Ray disc. Amazingly, I don't recall having watched this stuff before. Weird.

Anyhoo, I absolutely love this movie (and always have). Once they get into the various levels of dreaming (if you haven't seen it, just watch and pay attention), it gets Absolutely Beautiful (visually) and Beautifully Conceived (thematically). Chris Nolan, as a writer/director; Leo diCaprio and Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Ellen Page and Tom Hardy and Ken Watanabe and Marion Cotillard and that dude whose name I can never seem to pronounce (I always think it's got an "r" or two, rather than "l"s). Wow. If you've somehow missed watching this one, I don't want to say anything to spoil it; You Should Definitely Take the Time to Experience this Film. No, you don't just "watch" it. You Experience It. Also, it is a Warner Bros. film, and I have fond memories of describing the BTS of the hotel corridor scenes during my tours.

Finding Dory: this movie was released on my Baby Brother's Birthday! He has two small children, so I'm betting that his whole family unit has gone to see it by now. That idea makes me happy. You see, a few nights ago, we watched Finding Nemo again, because we knew the chances of us going to see Finding Dory today would be high. We were both very happy to have re-watched Finding Nemo, because Finding Dory is both a pre-quel and a sequel. Fabulous. If you love Pixar films; if you're not afraid of Pixar killing off a character or two that you already love, or that you've grown (during this particular film) to love, then you're already ready to watch this film, unless you've already gone to see it, in which case, you're probably ready to watch it again. I won't give any spoilers except to say that Pixar manages to tug exactly the right heart-strings, as usual, and this film doesn't in any way feel like it was Thirteen years ago that we were first introduced to the three main characters.If you haven't yet decided to see it, primarily because you hate seeing "kids'" films in a theater - with random kids - then find the last weeknight showing, and see it with adults. You won't be sorry. I promise. Also, at least two recognizable Modern Family voices in the new one. That made us smile. That's one of our fave shows.

Godzilla (2014): Don't bother. The "hero" that we are meant to root for is Not Ever heroic or even particularly likeable (not that he's particularly UN-likeable). The monster is almost not seen at all, and the monster is the true hero; there is a moment, early on, where the camera work teases us about a particular character being played by David Strathairn, even though we've already seen his name in the credits, and there is No Way we could not recognize his voice... and then they reveal that that particular character is actually being played by ... David Strathairn! WTF? This movie keeps trying to string us along, in the hopes that we will like it. There's just really Very Little To Like. Seriously, Don't Bother. If you're looking for a campy, over-the-top but "realistic" Radioactively-Enhanced Lizard Flick, stick with Matthew Broderick in the 1998 version (OMG, really? almost twenty years ago? Day-Um). It's way more funnerer, at least. Plus, youngish Matthew Broderick!

Person of Interest Series Finale: WTF, CBS? We loved this show; we loved all the characters; we loved the actors playing the roles; we loved the story arcs and how they were being told. Then CBS cancels the series altogether with just enough time for the writers to "close" the story. For Shit. So Disappointing. In case you haven't watched any of the show, well, you can go ahead and binge-watch from the beginning, and see the devastating loss of Taraji P. Henson (and ONLY Taraji), but still get strung along through the course of the series, only to end it... weakly. Harumph.

That's what we've been watching, or at least what I remember to review. We did re-watch Independence Day "recently" but Will Not be seeing its sequel, at least not "out" in the world, If it gets cheap enough when it comes out on Blu=Ray, we may buy it unseen. Also, I began this post last night, so if I say "today/tonight" then be aware I'm talkin' 'bout Friday the 24th, not truly "today". I gave myself the gift of a day to proof it before posting. You wanna do better? Then Do It. Blog, and post a link so I can add you to my list over there ==>

 Have you watched something recently that I should review?

Tuesday, June 21, 2016

Here. Lemme show you where FRANCE is, on the map o' the world.

Ya see the darkest green splotch on this map? That's FRANCE. I had (so far), in the last 24-hour period, One Hundred Twelve reader "hits" on my blog, from FRANCE. I speak No French. I pronounce a few French words very poorly (typically on purpose), like "whore's doovers" and "ovaries", and some I pronounce correctly, but I can't spell them here, because I don't know accentuation. Like "I know nothing" and "such is life" and "such is war" (but in FRENCH). But y'all, I had, in the last 24 hours, One Hundred Twelve blog hits! From FRANCE!
I'm gonna go out on a limb, and assume that at least a FEW of these hits were from new readers, so WELCOME! Sorry I don't speak any French, but thanks for your visits!

UPDATE: I also wanna show you Portugal, in case you dunno where THAT is. Last two-hour window, I've had twice as many hits from Portugal as Lee or his neighbor in Canada has visited, which means the medium-green (smallest green) splotch in the pic (pretty much in the center of the map), just north of the continent of Africa, is Portugal.

Monday, June 20, 2016

If it Ain't One Damn Thing, it's Another

I told you about my stress of planning for my big milestone birthday.
I reported on the events of the weekend of my big milestone birthday.
I told you about the fall I took in my own damn living room, just outta the blue, and the injuries I sustained. I told you about the left side of my body overcompensating for the injuries on the right side of my body, and the pain I was experiencing in my left foot, every time I went for a walk (which is, of course, daily).
I tweeted that my pain seemed to be abating, YAY, but NOW I have a heat rash! Exhibit A:
Finally nearly rid of foot pain; now have heatrash in both elbows. A/C ineffective; taking break from online project for Very Cold pool! :)?

I've often stated that, given the choice of extreme temperatures, meaning, I have to choose which end of the "extreme" temperatures spectrum I will spend the rest of my days in (I dunno, like, say, in Purgatory?), I would 100%EveryTime choose "hot" over "cold".

My body doesn't sweat much, unless I'm exerting myself with physical activity and/or the temperatures/humidity are particularly "high". I endure warmer climes pretty well, compared to others. I Do Not endure cold very well. I whine and complain and bitch and moan if the temperature drops below 74º. I'm not kidding. I mostly hate air conditioning, because people will set that bitch to a "balmy" 65º and I'm wrapped up in long johns and sweaters and electric blankets (which I also hate).

So, given the "choice", I always say, let me be nekkid and sweatin' my ass off and Can't Get Cool any day, over Bundled to the Nth Degree so that I Can't Move my Arms but still Frozen to the Bone.

Which leads me to today, Day Two of Three (or possibly Four) of Triple-Digitº Fahrenheit. I'm not kidding, kids. It's HOT. We've got our sad little wall-unit A/C running (at 75º, natch), and fans blowing in every room, even OVERNIGHT, because it's Hot.
Exhibit B:
Left Elbow. The worst spot. Itchiest,
Most Bumpiest and Reddest,
Oozy and then Crusty. FUN! (not)
left wrist. kinda bumpy,
occasionally itchy. worse than
right wrist. almost can't even see the
bumps, which barely itch at all.










Right Elbow, less significant than
Left Elbow but Similar in its
Oozy/Crusty Yuckiness.
*****

Oh, and all the fresh fruit I'm eating lately must be doing something, because Loose Stools. Yay. NO Exhibit C. ;)



Whaddya got? Better? Worse? Another Damn Thing?

Friday, June 17, 2016

Happy Birthday, Baby Bro!

Today is my Baby Brother's Birthday. Y'all know I just celebrated my milestone, so you now have Four Years to make your plans for Baby Bro's milestone!

He's got a lovely wife and two totes adorbs kids, and they live way far away in Kentucky. One of the few Good Things about us living in North Carolina for the 20 months that we did, was being close enough to Baby Bro's family to road-trip with them to Florida for other big events, as necessary.

InnerHippie's milestone was two years ago, and Stephen and I did attend that one. Good Times. Lately, I'm missing my family just a bit. Not enough to move across the country again, of course. ;) Ennyhoo.

Happy Birthday, Baby Bro!

Wednesday, June 15, 2016

Reviews

The Guardian: this movie is a decade old, but we didn't realize that when we started watching it a few nights ago. The main things we noticed were the "legitimate-armed-services vs. 'lite'-armed-services" comparisons. I was, in 8th grade, enlisted (?) in the Civil Air Patrol. I, and all of my compadres, knew that this was "Air Force Lite". I have come to realize, by virtue of watching "The Guardian", that there is No Such Thing as "Marine Lite" altho the National Guard is (probably) considered "Army Lite" by those who enlist in the Actual US Army, and the Coast Guard is (definitely) considered "Navy Lite" by those who enlist in the Actual US Navy. Let's start this movie review assuming the aforementioned to be "true".  The Guardian is Top Gun Lite. If you know and love the Tom Cruise original and/or you have any positive feelings about Kevin Costner and/or Ashton Kutcher, then you will probably enjoy The Guardian. Look for those "Top Gun Lite" moments! Make a drinking game out of it, if you must! It's not a bad movie, per se, it's just simply "Lite". Please comment on the results of your drinking game.

Room With a View: this movie was pretty much our ''go-to" relive our college years 'go-to' favorite A-list Big Name Of The Era (OMG look at how YOUNG ____ is!) romantic movie. I always knew I'd get to visit Venice, or possibly Florence, and stay in a Room with a View. We LOURVVVVVVED this movie, Back in the Day. Here's what I noticed THIS time around:
OMG, Maggie Smith has NARY a facial wrinkle! What, is she merely FORTY? (she was 50, by the time this was released)
OMG, look at how young and "vibrant" Helena Bonham Carter and Julian Sands and Daniel Day "My Left Foot" Fucking LEWIS are!
OMG, is that really "M", Dame Judi Dench? (Also, only 50+ at release) And is it possible that I know "little brother" from the Cumberbatch/Freeman "Sherlock"? REALLY? Did we NOT also realize he was in "V for Vendetta" and "The Madness of King George"?
And WHEN THE HELL did this script get So Incredibly Fucking FUNNY? Seriously, this time around, we laughed our Fucking Asses Off. Amazing, what a decade (or THREE) can do. This has become my NEW "go-to" relive our college years 'go-to' favorite A-list Big Name of the Era (OMG look at how YOUNG _____ is!) romantic movie. If you NEED an 80's movie that ISN'T a John Hughes movie to fill this particular bill, you can't go wrong with this one.

The Canna (Skin and Foot) Spa: I was having pain in my left arch. I Googled "reflexology near me" and found two places (very near me) where I might relieve that pain. One of the two places offered massages and reflexology, for $X. Not too many reviews, but they were proud of their "Thai environment". The other place, also not very far from home, had 4.9 out of 5 stars, on A Lot of reviews, for various services, including reflexology, and "great value for the price". The only "negative" I found in any review was "Seriously; they speak NO ENGLISH". This is the one I opted for. Outside the front door, there were two posted "specials" I could have chosen from, and since I was mostly dealing with FOOT pain, I could have easily stuck with my "no more than $25" plan and simply gotten the One-Hour Reflexology (Foot + Other) Massage. But I'd felt a slight "twinge" in my back as well, and I had yet to spend all of my Birthday Mailbox Money. So I opted for the slightly-longer "full-body plus reflexology" massage for twice the price. Forty Bux for Full Body? Sue Me. (Thank you, Daddy Dear!)

Thank you, Thailand, for sending tiny little petite gals who don't have an ounce of bodyfat on their bodies, and yet, they are as strong as oxen and have the upper-body and shoulder strength to prove it, to America, specifically the San Fernando Valley, California, to work the tension out of all our little #FirstWorldProblems that we carry in our "anywhere". "Kylee" was amazing. I'm sure that's not her real name. She spoke zero English. I wasn't even sure how "naked" to get for my full body massage (completely, as it turns out, or to whatever degree I'm comfortable with, which, as it turns out, would be "completely"). Had an amazing massage in a private room with "traditional Thai jazz" playing that would be completely non-distracting, and then moved out fully dressed (in shorts and tank top) to the "common" area for the reflexology portion. The music in the completely-devoid-of-other-customers common area was "easy listening" or "light jazz", the sort of music you might hear being played by a live pianist in the lobby of a mid-to-high -end hotel chain. No vocals, just all piano. From Every. Era. Since the Beginning. Of. Time. We're talking SERIOUS "Easy Listening". The first song I heard, I recognized, and it immediately evoked Grandma: "The Shadow of Your Smile". This song is so old, I wasn't sure if it was The Shadow of your LOVE, your LIFE, or something else entirely. Yes, I recognized it immediately, and yes, it reminded me of Grandma. There were no lyrics, and I had to do Everything In My Power not to lose the tune All Day so as to be able to report on it later. In fact, I made Stephen PAUSE the next thing so I could find it on YouTube (no, the linked version is not the version I heard, but it's certainly jazzy) first to verify it!:

The New Top Gear (BBCAmerica): Okay, so we love Jeremy and James and Richard, and YES, we always loved them better than their American counterparts (because seriously, it was the Same Exact Show except in front of a Live Audience that Wasn't Allowed to Sit Down). But Jeremy apparently said some things that didn't jibe with the BBC, and so he was fired, and James and Richard said "if he's fired so are WE" and the BBC took them up on their offer, and so now there will be a new show with Jeremy and James and Richard (YAY) on some other network, but there's also still a new "Top Gear": We've watched the first three episodes. We absolutely LOURRVVVVE (seriously, can we LOVE him more than emoticons allow? #AskingForAFriend #BlogspotDisallowsEmoticons) Matt LeBlanc on this show. It is as if the show were always written for him. His "co-host" (who is actually the "primary" host) Chris Evans (no, not the CaptainAmericaChrisEvansThatWeAllKnowAndSecretlyPineFor, but some tiny little British Ginger Chris "Evans" that we've never heard of) is scripted as if he could ever possibly hope to deliver Jeremy's lines in nearly as deadpan or snarky a way but SeriouslyNeverCould. They keep adding "additional members" - who manage to round out the missing "Mythbusters" Build Team (which is the Full Entire Reason We've Quit Watching That Show: How Do You Fire The Build Team and Keep The Viewership, Mythbusters?) so we're still deciding which "extraneous" members are fun to watch? Chris is okay, but Matt should be the Primary Host, and Chris should be his Co-, and eventually the BBC will settle on a Secondary Co- (we think/we hope).

I started this post LATE last night. I'm SO GLAD I didn't hit "Publish" until I'd had a chance to proof it. So now, I'll "review" myself:

"My use of quotation marks": TERRIBLE! Stephen I and took a walk together today, and we passed a sign outside of a business that said "WE ARE" OPEN! Come on in! I then spent the next block of walking, doing air quotes, trying to explain exactly what the signwriter had "meant". HA!
MY USE OF CAPITAL LETTERS: "just awful" - have I forgotten how much I love the bold and italic modes of emphasis? Or the occasional underline?
MyUseOfSpaces, or LackThereof: again, I think I may have just been farting around with new modes of emphasis. #Don'tHurtMe

That's all for this post. I know, no photos today. But we can't always have pretty pictures to look at while we're tryin'aread. Tough Noogies. Have you anything to add?

Monday, June 13, 2016

So what else?

After the big milestone birthday "blowout" gathering of new friends and "old", the rest of my weekend was pretty chill. Except that I tripped over my laptop cord or bag, or possibly just slipped in my sockfeet on my marble tile living room floor, landing hard on my right elbow, shoulder, hip, knee, and ankle (more upper body than lower, somehow). Enjoy some fun photos! Let me just say here, these are pics of my ELBOW, which is a difficult body part to self-photograph.
I scraped my elbow in what felt like a vertical
fall onto marble tile. Scraped that mofo.

Also, immediately formed a knot, which began bruising,
also immediately.

last night: looks like someone stuck a big,
circular bruise sticker on me

also last night, a different angle,
shot in the medicine cabinet mirror

today, new angle into the tilting mirror

also today, to show you the weird "lump"
that the circular bruise "sticker" makes
The rest of the week has been consumed in getting my steps, looking for work, drinking grown-up Koolaid, and eating hot dogs or burgers because we have a lot of them. Also, my left foot started hurting in the arch, and I don't know if that's because I'm somehow overcompensating for my right-side pain from the fall, or if my new sneaks have me walking differently. The last couple of days, I'm taking more steps than 10,000, but I'm not walking as quickly. I don't like that. I don't mind walking 11k or 12k or 13k, but I'd like to be able to maintain 3.5mph. It's not that that speed makes me winded or anything; it has everything to do with what feels like a lack of arch support. I say "feels like" because I know that's not the problem. The new kicks have significantly more arch support than the old ones did. Ennyhoo. Foot pain, yay. Good news is, the pain I was feeling in the instep of my right foot has either abated or I just don't even notice it anymore because the pain in my left arch is so excruciating! Woo Hoo!

On a side note, in addition to the non-FitBit thingy that I wear daily, I had also downloaded a free Google app to my phone to track my fitness, and the other day, it said that I had taken a 13-minute bike ride. And since it's Google, it shows that that bike ride happened within my apartment building. I don't have access to a bicycle, so What? Crazy.

Three Good Things: My allergies have been pretty calm this week. Cocoa's started using the new scratching post (well, the base of it, at least). My Depression seems to have lifted. I've made a little progress toward networking better for more film work. I seem to be back to blogging (we'll see). I've had a few walking-sampling lunches this week.

And speaking of food: Friday night, the homeowner-hosts of my party renewed their Chuck-E-Cheese dealios (they have a five-year-old), and since it's physically located just over 100 steps from my front door, I went to hang out with them for a little bit (as if we hadn't seen each other in ages, LOL). Chuck-E-Cheese pizza, y'all. Not "bad", per se; probably only not good for ya. Saturday night, I nuked us up some Trader Joe's tamales. Good Stuff. Last night, Stephen's Good Work Reward took us out to eat. Taco Bell, man. YUMMMM. Not hot dogs nor hamburgers, for three straight nights. Good Times.

This morning, I dreamt of Mommy. Or more like, I dreamt of dreaming of Mommy. I awoke within my dream, crying, because I knew it was only a dream. Ten years, kids. Some days, it feels like it just happened. Sucks.

And now you're caught up. Have you done anything as exciting as I have in the last week or so?

Saturday, June 11, 2016

Y'all can relax now. The BIG Birthday Weekend is over. Now to chill into the Birth Month. ;) UPDATED

I started this post on the sixth, y'all. I was gonna have something important to say to everyone within a week, at least, of the previous post. It is now ten days since my last post, and depending on how long it takes me to get all my thoughts out, it could easily be eleven (it's currently pushing eleven p.m. and I don't even know how much I have to say; blargh).

So let's see. The big milestone birthday was Friday, June 3rd. I'd sent out a metric shit-ton of Facebook invitations to the milestone birthday blowout gathering of new friends and "old", taking place on Saturday the 4th, and gotten responses from significantly fewer than a metric shit-ton of invitees. 'Sokay, the party was gonna be what it was gonna be. Stephen and I had made a run to Costco to get hot dogs and burgers, just in case my guests didn't clearly understand that the party was meant to be a chance for me to eat food that they had provided (stop looking at me like that; instead of having everyone out at a restaurant where they'd have to order their meals, I wanted a potluck!). While we were at Costco, we discovered a decent price on a variety case of beer (for Stephen) and an awesome price on a variety case of wine coolers for me, because, hello, 80's themed birthday party? Wine coolers, DUH! If only we could have found Bartles and Jaymes. That would have been "the shit", y'all. I'm tellin' ya.

Then, out of the blue, my sister, InnerHippie, shows up at my door on Thursday night, having planned to surprise me for my actual birthday day, Friday. Only she didn't know the code to get into the building, and she didn't even have my apartment number had she gotten into the building, and my phone was dead, so when she tried calling, she got my voicemail. It was like 10:30 or something, and she'd flown into Burbank from Billings, Montana, to spend One Day with me, as a surprise, and she had to go back to her hotel so she could call me a poopy-head on Facebook. I was brushing my teeth to go to bed, when Stephen pointed out the post. I had him call her hotel while I charged my phone, and she changed back outta her jammies to come back and get me.
InnerHippie with our free donuts for #NationalDonutDay,
which also happened to be #MyBirthday. We'll see if it
falls on #MyBirthday or the #1stJuneFriday next year!
when I told the dude my name, THIS is
what he wrote! That's pretty
damn close; we expected "ML"
 I spent that night with her in her hotel, just so we could get a good jump-start on our sister-catch-up. I think we made it into bed and lights out by 1 a.m. We got up the next morning and hung out all day. We had donuts and got my free birthday GrandSlam at Denny's.

My meal was egg- and dollar-free (those are
GRITS, y'all), and hers wasn't too pricey.
Looks like she's wearing a party hat, no? That's a lamp.
I was able to give her her first IKEA experience as well as her first Trader Joe's experience. She was not overly impressed with either one. When I say that I hate shopping, I'm really only talking about clothing shopping. InnerHippie really (Seriously, REALLY) hates shopping. Okay! But we spent the day together; we swam a bit in the hotel pool (which was not necessarily "heated" per se, but it was definitely warmer than my apartment pool); we collected Stephen and went out for an Italian dinner. It was a really good day, and the best possible way I could have asked to spend my birthday day, had I known to ask for it. My only regret was that she'd made her plans around Friday only, and she had to leave too early Saturday to be able to attend even a tiny bit of my party. And that's just me being selfish. I wanted to squeeze every second of her visit out and drain it into a spritzer bottle so I could just spritz myself with "sister visit" anytime I felt like it after the fact. Wow. Putting those words here let some onion-cutting ninjas sneak into my apartment. Those bastards are good. They didn't even open the front door!

So, anyway. We got her on her plane and headed over to the party, where the homeowner-hostess helped eightiesify my hairdo, homeowner-host started up his Spotify playlist (for whatever reason, all that work that Stephen had done to save mp3's wasn't talking to the sound system, drat), and we started drinking. Let me tell ya. The differences between 80's wine coolers and those of today are significant. First of all, Bartles and Jaymes coolers had some weird pulp in them. I think that was to maybe help them taste more like lemonade than beer, but at any rate, they were Wine Coolers... with pulp. And they came in one flavor: pulpy wine-ish. And they were not as heavy as a glass of wine or even a bottle of beer, but they did have at least 4% alcohol by volume. The Seagrams wine coolers that we bought had no pulp. They were in clear glass bottles so you could see what color flavor you were getting. Oh, who am I kidding? The "lime margarita" tasted green, the "fuzzy navel" tasted orange (colored), the "piña colada" tasted blue, etc. (the other three "flavors" were varying shades of pink). Their labels indicate a 3.2% alcohol by volume, which is a lie if I've ever read one. These puppies have zero alcohol in them. I drank a lot that night (well, at least I emptied many bottles), but by the time the party was wrapped, I was sober, and I drove us home. With nearly a case of beer, and nearly a case of wine coolers (huh? how was that possible?) and most of the meat we'd brought, too. Seagram's wine coolers are simply expensive bottles of "grown-up" (HA!) Koolaid. Some of my guests brought gifts, so I have some "good stuff" waiting for me to finish off my case. Yeah, baby. A champagne, two wines, and a lemonade that I'm told is perfect with vodka. I'm down with that. Just gotta get some vodka now (we left our liquor cabinet in North Carolina two years ago. Just no room to pack it. Someone had a nice surprise next to that dumpster!).

The party was pretty low-key but a ton of fun. The couple handfuls of attendees interacted with one another, and I think a good time was had by all. Stephanie came in her 80's 'do, and she brought another friend who was also eightiesified, and with me, homeowner-hostess, and Stephen (channeling Don Johnson, natch), the 80's were sufficiently represented.
Me and the homeowner-hostess, drinking wine coolers in
our Eightiesified hairdos and sorta 80's outfits
Davis and Stephanie;
Girls just GONNA have Fun!

photographer dared Jenn to "Goose" him. It wasn't even
a Triple-Dog-Dare. I ADORE the look on HER face!




















Besides, there was a most excellent playlist running, and a lot of the menfolk in attendance were competing with each other to name the artist first. I won only one or two rounds at the most, but honestly, I don't think I played more than three! HA!
selfie at home, in the bathroom
(my go-to selfie spot), after the fact
Front AND back!

What have we all been doing since that fateful Saturday, a week ago? I guess I'll have to catch you up on that stuff in another post! See you again in a bit! So here are the thank you's: Cheryl, Jenn, Dave, Stephen, Stephanie, other guests who probably don't read my blog, and Lee. I think you all know why I'm thanking you, specifically. THANK YOU.

Wednesday, June 1, 2016

Fairly Certain MY "June Gloom" Happened in May

Southern California is known for "June Gloom", meaning, while the rest of the world suddenly gets to enjoy some sunshine for the first time in a long time, we get cloudy, overcast, Depressing Days. Y'all know I suffer from occasional Depression, right? Of course you do. I've blogged about it numerous times. My most recent bout was so mild, even for me, that I didn't recognize that I was, in fact, Depressed. But as I pointed out in this post, Stephen recognized that I was, and he reminded me that #DepressionLies, and he did whatever he did to help me climb outta that hole.

You also know that my Birthday is coming up, right? Of course you do. I've blogged about it numerous times. I will have made my Spiritual Trip around our Sun in this Physical Meatsack I'm wearing FIFTY times, as of Friday. (I have, actually, already reached that number, but Friday is the anniversary of when Mommy pushed me outta my warm cocoon). FIFTY is a milestone, so I've got some homeowner friends, who love having people hang out in their backyard, hosting a milestone birthday "blowout" gathering of new friends and "old" in their backyard on Saturday. My only real job in the "planning" of this event was creating the event invite and making sure that there will be some guests to hang out with. Stephen and the other host-husband have been dealing with my 80's playlist. If we only listen to the thumbdrive of actual songs Stephen has loaded, we'll have more than 9 hours of music playing. If the other host-husband has Spotify stream the (Excel Spreadsheet that I created, listing the) Billboard Top 100 Songs from every year of the 1980's plus the year of my birth plus Every Number One on my Birthday, we'll have music to last a week. It's a lot of music. Music is done, man.
Homeowner-wife and I are supposed to do a little barbecue-meats shopping, in addition to whatever else we feel we need before it becomes last-minute, but here it is Wednesday night, and she hasn't made the "when are we going shopping?" call or text, which I'm guessing means I'll probably hear from her tomorrow or Friday. No big. If I'm working, I guess it'll be Stephen shopping.

I made a list of shoulds that have been contributing to my Depression. I have, of late, and wherefore I know not, regained my mirth, completed many of these tasks, and I am actually looking forward to this weekend. I hope more people who are invited via the Facebook invite will see and open the invite soon, and RSVP to it as soon as they see it. A decent crowd has responded so far, but there are a lot of people in the Los Angeles area I'd love to spend some time with, one-on-one, in a fairly casual, 80's themed backyard party!

Three (Nine) Good Things:

  1. Hair is under control. Roots dyed, ends trimmed, appropriate places to shave shaved.
  2. Car is maintained. Oil change and wash. Not "detailed" but that's not what I was looking for. Recent registration renewal sticker applied (finally) to clean plate. Insurance maintained monthly. No tickets; no accidents; no negatives. Love my yellow Fit!
  3. Driver's License renewed. Made an appointment for today, at a DMV that was an easy but unfamiliar drive, 20 miles away. Got there 43 minutes before my appointment time; walked out with the temporary license (until they mail me the real dealio) with two minutes to spare before my appointment was to start!
  4. Wore makeup today, for #3. Just a little blush and mascara. Gettin' pretty tanned these days, so I'm hoping the pic we took will be worth the next 10 - 15 years (California renews by mail 2 times out of 3). Fingers crossed!
  5. Have been getting all my steps, despite the fact that the non-FitBit thingy doesn't recognize walking in the cold pool or every step I take when I'm dancing along to the 80's playlist! Yes, I got into the freezing cold pool today, and I walked in the shallow end for about an hour, wearing the thingy at my neck (because, ya know, not good to submerge it). Got the needed steps in after the cold pool.
  6. Allergies are ... meh. The other day? Not A Single Cough or Throat-Clearing. Today? No "coughing" but plenty of throat-clearing efforts. Dunno. Whatevs.
  7. Got my birthday check from Daddy (Thanks, Daddy!) and immediately got it deposited. Credit Union has finally joined the 21st Century and offers immediate Mobile Deposit of checks in my smartphone. Have not yet designated what I shall spend my Birthday Cash on. *shrugs* Spent $33 on my new license today. Had to be done. Spent $34 on the car the other day. Had to be done. *shrugs*
  8. Am on top of the work-search. Haven't booked anything since that really low-budget dealio last Monday (for which I haven't yet been paid; whaddup widdat?), but I've been a little "nervous" that I would suddenly get hired back at Warner Bros. just in time to not be able to take Saturday off. So I'll check in with HR again tomorrow, probably. And continue looking for all the industry work that I know is out there. And Saturday could be a networking party, for me or others, and since the homeowner-hosts are in the know, I know that no one will mind (that was a lot of the homonym "no" just now, no?).
  9. Got wine. No chocolate. Gonna make key lime pie ice cream sammiches for the party tomorrow. Might make a coconut cheesecake, too, if I feel inclined. For tonight, there's wine.